DASH diet best at cutting blood pressure — but you've probably never heard of it

A new study has determined that (wait for it) eating a healthy diet will make you healthier. Yes, we're shocked too.

So this research is yet another victory for the DASH diet, consistently praised by medical and nutrition experts as one of the healthiest ways to eat.

DASH, or dietary approaches to stop hypertension, is rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, along with low-fat or fat-free dairy, fish, poultry, beans, seeds and nuts — pretty much everything that comes to mind when you think "healthy food".

The new study found adhering to DASH, when combined with limiting salt consumption, is as good at reversing the early stages of hypertension — the medical name for chronic high blood pressure — as taking medication.

“Our results add to the evidence that dietary interventions are as effective as — or more effective than — antihypertensive drugs in those at highest risk for high blood pressure,” said the study's lead author Dr Stephen Juraschek, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, in a statement.

Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the paper tracked more than 400 US adults whose systolic blood pressure (the pressure when their heart is contracting) ranged between 120-159mmHg, and whose diastolic blood pressure (when their heart is relaxing) ranged between 80-95mmHg.

Healthy blood pressure is a reading of up to 120/80mmHg (the top number is systolic pressure, the bottom number diastolic). More than 140/90mmHg is considered high — so the study's participants were generally edging on the danger zone (a condition called prehypertension).

For 12 weeks, they were put on either the DASH diet or a control diet that mimicked "normal" eating patterns (that is, a crappy diet). They were also randomly put on low, medium or high sodium diets.

While the DASH diet on its own lowered blood pressure, results were the strongest when combined with the low-sodium diet — and blood pressure reductions were particularly "outstanding" for those with the highest blood pressure at the start of the study, said Juraschek.

He said the finding suggests improving your diet is the most important first step for reversing hypertension.

“It’s an important message to patients that they can get a lot of mileage out of adhering to a healthy and low-sodium diet," added Dr Lawrence Appel, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-author of the paper.